A 17-year-old who is facing charges for killing a woman last year was arrested in connection with the homicide of a missing 16-year-old girl and her unborn child in Orlando last month.
Orange County Sheriff’s Office deputies have arrested Lorenzo Larry and charged him with second-degree murder in the killing of De’Shayla Ferguson, who was 20 weeks pregnant at the time of her murder.
“This whole community should be grieving for De’Shayla Ferguson, and her family, and her unborn baby,” said Sheriff John Mina during a news conference on Tuesday morning.
Mina says that Ferguson, who had been declared missing earlier this Summer, was killed by a single gunshot wound to the head after a heated argument with Larry. She was found by Orange County Sheriff’s Office deputies outside of a residence in the 5300 block of Broken Pine Circle on Monday, October 24.
During his press conference, Mina took time to dispel rumors that Ferguson was a victim of human trafficking, as some media outlets incorrectly reported.
“It’s been reported by some, that this case may have been related to human trafficking. That’s not true. There is no nexus to human trafficking in this case,” said Mina.
According to court records, in February 2021, Larry was arrested when he was 15-years-old for carrying a concealed firearm and violation of home detention. In December 2021, Larry was identified as a suspect in the killing of a 23-year-old Orlando woman. That woman was found with a single gunshot wound to the head.
At the time, Larry fled the state and wasn’t arrested again until May 2022 on separate gun charges. While he was being interrogated in May, Larry admitted to shooting the woman in December, but claimed he had done so in self-defense.
Larry was arrested again on gun charges in July.
“You have heard me say time and time again, that no one gets into this profession to arrest kids, especially for low-level offenses. But that’s not the case here,” said Mina. He explained that the policy didn’t apply to “juveniles who are out there carrying guns, committing violent crimes in our community.”
“We have to acknowledge that someone who amasses this many gun charges and is responsible for the killing of two women and an unborn child, needs to be behind bars for a very, very long time for the safety of the community,” said Mina.